Seeing that Grandma Gu had completely stopped paying attention to Jenny Gu's situation, Jenny's mother stormed off angrily, dragging her son along. Clutching the thirty thousand yuan she hadn't yet handed over, she carefully maneuvered her once-arrogant Santana 2000 away from the entrance, making sure to avoid the Yin Family motorcade, and left in a huff.
They didn't dare get anywhere near the Yin Family motorcade. Even if they scraped a bit of paint off those cars, the compensation would be enough to bankrupt them for life.
Seeing Cecilia Gu ruin her engagement, Jenny Gu was consumed with envy, jealousy, and hatred. If it weren't for all the people around, she would have snatched that stunning man away from Cecilia right then and there!
Inside the room, Grandma Evelyn Yin and Grandma Gu finished discussing the details and turned to look at Helen Gu.
"Helen, is there anything you'd like to add?" Grandma Evelyn Yin asked, turning to Helen Gu.
Before Helen could speak, Grandma Gu cut in, "What opinion could she possibly have? In this family, I make the decisions!"
Helen stood off to the side, never once asked for her opinion from beginning to end. It was as if she didn't exist, as if she meant nothing at all.
Cecilia looked at her mother and saw tears brimming in her eyes, yet she couldn't utter a single word. Cecilia's heart ached for her.
In this family, she and her mother were always the ones who barely existed.
Anyone could decide their fate.
Her daughter was getting married, yet as a mother, she had absolutely no say in the matter.
Charles Yin instinctively glanced at Cecilia. When he saw her face turn slightly pale, he felt an unexpected trace of pity.
Cecilia took a deep breath, quickly composed herself, and said to Charles, "Ch—Charles, this is your first time in the village, right? Let me show you around."
Charles immediately stood up tall. "Alright."
"Yes, Charles, go with Cecilia and take a walk. Don't worry about anything else," Grandma Evelyn Yin chimed in. "We're more than enough here."
"Okay." Only then did Cecilia stand up and take her leave.
The two of them left the room together, one after the other, heading to the side.
No matter where they went, a group of people would always trail behind them.
"Do you have something to say to me?" Charles raised an eyebrow, his gaze sharp. "You can say whatever you want right here."
Cecilia glanced at the string of people following behind and said, "Come to my room for a moment."
Cecilia just felt there were too many people in the courtyard, making it inconvenient to talk.
But when Charles heard her words, he seemed to interpret them as having another meaning.
Charles couldn't help but curl his lips into a slight smile. "Alright."
Cecilia led Charles into her own room.
As soon as they entered, Charles felt the room suddenly brighten before his eyes.
Though the room was old and cramped, it was cleaned spotlessly, not a speck of dust anywhere.
On a shabby square table covered with a blue-and-white checkered cloth and a layer of clear glass, there was a picture frame. In the frame, a young girl smiled sweetly, hugging a cheap-looking plush toy, looking genuinely happy.
Charles's gaze lingered on that photo for a long, long time before he finally looked away.
Cecilia brought Charles a glass of water. Seeing him staring at her photo, she quickly went over and flipped the frame face-down, a little uneasy. "The Yin Family doesn’t need to give me so much money. Even if they do, I won’t get a single cent of it."
Charles flashed a devilish smile. "Getting money from the Yin Family isn’t that easy. Only after you marry and have the child will the full amount be transferred to your account. Of course, once it’s there, whoever you give it to is up to you."
Hearing this, Cecilia breathed a sigh of relief. She definitely didn’t want her grandmother to get the money; once it went into her grandmother’s pocket, she could forget about ever seeing a penny of it again.
Charles turned to look at a bookshelf against the wall, where Cecilia’s college graduation photo and diploma were displayed.
Looking at the girl in the graduation gown, smiling so brightly in the sunlight, Charles subconsciously reached out to take the photo down.
Cecilia snatched it away, hugging it to her chest, and protested angrily, "Don’t touch that photo!"
Charles looked down at Cecilia. This was the fourth expression he'd ever seen on her face, apart from her usual blankness, tears, and smiles.
Her eyebrows were scrunched together, her nose and mouth wrinkled up—she looked just like a proud little cat.
He hadn’t expected her to look so good when she was angry.
No, actually, she looked rather interesting.
For the first time, he realized a woman could have so many vivid expressions. Dina, aside from her formulaic smile, was always just formulaic—rarely showing real emotion.
This woman clearly shattered all his previous ideas about women.
"Is that photo really important to you?" Charles asked casually. "I mean, doesn’t everyone take a graduation photo like that? Or is it because the person who took it was special?"